Bodhi Tree Bookstore Featured Lecturer: Phyllis Curott

photo credit: Bruce Fields

Phyllis Curott is a graduate of Brown University and NYU School of Law, and is a practicing attorney, dividing her time between New York City and her travels. In addition, she is a film producer and author. Also, for over twenty years, Curott has been a Wiccan High Priestess and the founder of the Temple of Ara. As a High Priestess she is president emerita of the oldest and largest international religious organization in the Wiccan tradition. She lectures frequently around the world and is widely respected for her work promoting civil rights and religious freedom. For additional information about Phyllis Curott, please see her web site: www.phylliscurott.com.

Phyllis Curott appeared at the Bodhi Tree in October, 1998 to talk about her book Book of Shadows and offered us a fascinating window on the world of a witches' circle. What follows is an edited version of that presentation by Camilla Denton.

"A witch is somebody who has learned to take the blindfold off and to see the world as sacred. When you realize this, you see that the magic is also in you. Magic is the relationship we have with divine energy." - Phyllis Curott

Phyllis Curott: When I started practicing twenty years ago, witchcraft was as far back in the broom closet as you could possibly get. There were only about a thousand other practicing witches in America, and we all knew each other. Now everything's changed. Every time I turn around I encounter somebody who is practicing Wicca.

A witch is somebody who has learned to take the blindfold off, and to see that the world is sacred. When you realize this sacredness, you see that the magic is also in you. Magic is the relationship we have with divine energy. And a spell is simply the means by which we transform our dreams into reality. When you realize this, amazing things happen: synchronicities, fulfilled desires, dreams that come true . . . Indeed, those of us who practice Wicca understand that there are ways to make our dreams come true that have an enduring effect not only on our own lives, but on the world.

On one level the book follows my life in a very glamorous entertainment law firm and on another, it introduces the philosophy, history and practices of Wicca: How spells feel when you use them, how they're done correctly and how they transform ordinary lives into magic. The passage that follows describes a particular healing ceremony attended by, amongst others, Nonna, the elder of my circle, and Maia and Bellona the high-priestesses who ran it. [the following excerpt from the book is abridged by the Bodhi Tree]

"The temple was resplendent: Pink candles and voluptuous bouquets filled each quarter. There were more flowers, ripe fruit, seashells and shining crystals on the altar. Exotic incense perfumed the air in floating lavender drifts. The women had covered the pillows in silk brocades and hand blocked Fortuny velvets the colors of a queen's jewels. Nonna rose slowly and with difficulty, but a soft glow colored her cheeks and she seemed to grow stronger as she invoked the Goddess. The Goddess was called from the misty realms beyond space and time . . . from the primordial expanse from which all life arose. She was stirred from the ashes of countless pyres on which women had been burned. Summoned from our hearts, from our bodies, from our ancient memories, she was called to share her blessings, her wisdom and her healing. I reached out for her with my longing but no image appeared, no gracious apparition, no irrefutable sign of acknowledgement. So I waited in the invisible and enveloping void.

"Nonna picked up the brazier and faced Gillian. 'With air and with fire I consecrate thee. Blessed be your breasts, created in beauty and strength that they might sustain life with the milk of paradise. Blessed be your womb, created in beauty and strength that it might create life.'

"She held the brazier before Gillian's right breast, moved it across to her left breast and down to her womb and back up to her right breast, leaving a smoky triangle floating in the air. She returned the brazier to the altar and picked up the bowl of saltwater. 'With water and with earth I consecrate thee.' Nonna repeated the gesture blessing her breasts and womb. When she finished, she gently kissed her and instructed her to repeat the ritual with Onatah, who was seated beside Gillian. In this manner, moving deosil - which is clockwise - around the circle, each woman received and bestowed consecration and blessings. Tears of gratitude sprang from my heart as a gruff Marsha enacted the ritual consecration with me. Her bear-like gestures bespoke the powerful grace of the warrior Goddess Artemis, who is also the protector of women during childbirth. Intimacy and trust encircled us, and with that embrace came a feeling like the love of a mother of infinite expression--peace, confidence and grace flowed through me as I, in turn, shared the sacred moment with Jeanette. Words and gestures, air, fire, water and earth and a sublime quality of generous purpose wove us together. Sitting in that sanctified circle with the other women, my heart filled with joy. It did not occur to me to wonder where the Goddess was to be found.

"Nonna held up the apple. In the Bible this is the fruit Eve ate--the fruit of knowledge. By eating it she was said to have caused humanity's downfall.

"She picked up her curfane - a small white hilt knife - and cut the apple in half, not as we usually cut an apple from stem to base, but along its equator, slicing not along but through its core. She held up the two halves. 'There is a secret that those of us who honor the Goddess know. Within the apple there is a star, symbol of the old ways. It is a symbol of the Goddess and her gift of divine life.' The circle murmured with delight to see five sliced seeds forming the shape of a star at the center of each apple half. Nonna smiled at our surprise and continued. 'We are priestesses of the ancient mother, of the craft of the wise. Though some in their fear and blindness may call us the daughters of Eve, we honor knowledge. We do not fear it. As we take a bite from this apple, we accept the responsibility of knowledge to use it wisely in the world and to share it with others. We reclaim our power as women, our sacred wisdom as priestesses and our knowledge of the gracious Goddess who resides in all things.'

"She bit into the apple and then handed it to Gillian who slowly held it aloft and spoke to us. 'I remember when women were priestesses, when women were healers. I remember when women were honored and I remember Avalon. I remember the Goddess in our hearts,' and bit into the apple.

"Tenderly, Onatah took the apple from her. Solemnity overtook her usually laughing beautiful visage. Her chin thrust forward and her eyes narrowed as if she were spotting game. She bit into the apple and a warrior spoke. 'I deny the power of those who would call me evil and I reclaim my power as a woman.' And so the fruit of knowledge traveled around the circle of wisdom.

"When the apple came to me I grasped it as the symbol of re-empowerment. It smelled sweet and my fingers were wet with the juice that ran from its golden pulp. I gave thanks to the knowledge that Eden surrounds us, that we have never left paradise. I gave thanks for the wisdom that will help us honor and protect the sacred earth, and its people. I gave thanks for the sisterhood who preserve the rights of the Goddess. And I bit into the apple. I reclaimed my power as a woman.

"I sat up straight, feeling the energies of life spiraling up my spine as I handed the apple to Jeanette. Cupping the rosy apple between her brown palms, Jeanette spoke. 'I honor the nourishment and the strength the Goddess has given me. She sustains me with the fruits of life.'

"She returned the apple to Nonna, who held the core aloft. 'One thing becomes another in the Mother, in the Mother.' Maia and Bellona began singing quietly, their voices blending in loving harmony. I leaned in to hear them and quickly recognized the melody from our earliest gatherings. 'We all come from the Goddess and to Her we shall return like a drop of rain flowing to the ocean.' Softly, supportively, we joined in. Spontaneous harmonies enriched our singing and soon we were chanting a call and response while Nonna kept the beat with steady clapping. We transformed the chant into a whirling round, and the power intensified as our voices soared into a song of deep empowerment. The song and its magical energy crested and ebbed. The power we had raised remained within as we sat in electrified silence. When I finally opened my eyes, I was astonished to behold the radiant beauty that surrounded me. Nonna seemed stronger and healthier and both Maia and Bellona looked more at peace than they had in weeks.

"'For women to regain their powers to create life and culture,' said Nonna, 'they must have a description and an experience of the divine that includes those aspects of being we call feminine and which Taoists call yin. Only in this way can women achieve wholeness. Only in this way can we emerge from the shadows to reclaim Eden.'"

Phyllis Curott: Nonna's words point to one of the most important aspects of Wiccan spirituality: The idea of personal ritual and revelation. Wicca is not a system of dogma or rules and regulation, it is a spiritual practice that each individual can master and make use of to personally experience the divine. Indeed, the divine is imminent and as well as transcendent, also feminine as well as masculine.

This means there's a witch in every woman - and every man too. No-one inherits supernatural powers - these are divine innate gifts belonging to everyone. But what we do in Wicca is cultivate them. As practicing Witches, we merely pay attention.

Twenty years ago women swelled the ranks of Goddess spirituality, but in the last five years more and more men have joined. Traditionally, Wicca has attracted women because there are very few spiritual homes for them. There's nothing else in the Western world that has any conception of the divine as female, or that honors women. However, if you look to nature as your spiritual teacher, which is what we do, what Taoists do, and what other indigenous religions do, you will find male and female are treated as equals. It is both our differences and our similarities that join us. We love the fact that men are joining. It's a model for the future.

However, some women continue to practice within women's only circles. And some gay women prefer to work alone, as do some gay men. Each group works with metaphors that are appropriate to their experience. Still, in all of Goddess spirituality, there is an attitude of tolerance and appreciation that really characterizes the entire practice.

We are all co-creators of divine reality. We all embody the Goddess. We are the living consciousness of the universe, at least in this part of it. Each one of us is like a little brain cell in the consciousness of it all. And we are uniquely gifted in our capacity to have awareness of the divine, and to be in communion with divine energy.

For this reason, personally, I rarely do spells. I rarely try to control the outcome of my life. I try to distinguish between what we call "Wand Work" - "I want this and I want that and give me this and give me that" - and the real work of becoming wise. If we approach Wicca from the perspective of lust and desire, then we are simply being adolescent. Rather, we need to be working through the grail and the cauldron to open ourselves. We need to use these techniques to remove the blindfold and to bring the sacred into our lives, to seek to see what is surrounding us, and what is within us. Then to use that relationship as a means of guidance - to make choices of how to take action, of what spells to cast, of how to go to the well of our own inner divinity and bring it forth into manifestation. If you trust in the wisdom and the gift of this greater reality, you will see how we inhabit an interactive universe, and how we can use this dynamic to guide us.

And we Wiccans are priests and priestesses of the Earth, for us the Earth is sacred. It is the body of the divine, but people are killing it. Even the scientists are pleading: "If you continue to overpopulate, deplete resources and pollute at the rate that you're going, we will reach a point of no return." Yet nobody listens. We've become paralyzed with fear and have gone into denial. At least those involved in the Earth religions - the Native Americans, the Shintos, the Taoists and the Witches have for a long time offered a connection to the Earth that's sacred and alive. We try to be as mindful as we possibly can.

To that end I tell people before you do anything, use the techniques of divination, commune with the sacred, get your guidance from that then go forward and act. The universe is perfect, and if we are in right relationship to it, then what we do is perfect. You may not generate the result that you first intended, but you will come to know that the result you get is perfect. It's the right thing for you, and your job is to understand both its lesson and purpose, and to receive the strength that you are meant to gain from it.

That is why, ultimately, this work is about spiritual maturity. It's about each individual taking responsibility for his or her own development. It doesn't require the abandonment of your intellectual gift, at the same time, it's not about, "Oh, I'm going to cast a magic spell to change everything." This is a profound and transformative path, which means that you have to deal with fears and challenges and sometimes defeat. The techniques exist for practitioners to access the divine and to become wise. Indeed, that's why Wicca is called the craft of the wise. Your power comes from your courage and your enlightenment.